On Monday, Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu unveiled a 21-member committee that will advise him on the selection of the city’s next police superintendent. Landrieu used the opportunity to reiterate that the selection of a new top cop remains his top priority. Landrieu and all of his campaign rivals promised to conduct a national search to find […]
Author Archives: The Editors
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Louisiana hit hard, but not among the "hardest hit"
Today, President Barack Obama announced $1.5 billion for the “hardest hit housing markets,” money that will go to state housing-finance agencies to help foreclosure and declining housing price chaos. Though foreclosures are the main focus, the money may also be used for sustainable and affordable homeownership. Louisiana likely won’t benefit much from the plan. The […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
The streetcar is nice, but we've missed the train
After the announcement earlier this week that New Orleans won a $45 million federal stimulus program grant to build a new streetcar line on Loyola Avenue, I reminisced about the role of citizen watchdogs in ensuring that the Regional Transit Authority didn’t capitulate to tourism industry interests that wanted only to apply for a route […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Streetcar expansion earned through public cooperation
New Orleans is on a rail! Mardi Gras is over and the Super Bowl celebrations are retracting from their peak but the good news keeps on sliding down the track. On Wednesday, New Orleans was awarded one of 51 grants made eligible for the expansion of public transportation under last year’s stimulus program. The city […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Catching up: Reports and ruminations from The Lens
A weekly review of our interesting, thought-provoking and original writing.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Distracted or disillusioned?
The Mardi Gras run-up and the Super Bowl celebrations were routinely described as diversions that kept residents of New Orleans from participating in municipal elections. Indeed, only about a third of registered voters cast ballots.However, I would argue that neither Carnival parades nor the Super Bowl distracted citizens from exercising the vote. Election Day was […]
Posted inEnvironment
The toxic numbers game
In my recent article about the slow release of money from the state for a program to address lead contamination across New Orleans, I wrote about arsenic levels in soil that are supposed to trigger a clean-up under state Department of Environmental Quality policy. In a document sent to me from DEQ entitled “Arsenic sampling […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Mitch’s Mandate
Mitch Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans on Saturday by a much larger margin than even the latest polls predicted, with a convincing 65 percent of the vote. Landrieu’s easy victory seemed unlikely given the city’s reputation for racial polarization and the wide field of opponents, but the mayor-elect’s campaign and get-out-the-vote strategies yielded […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Rebate for new appliances comes with a financial catch
Louisiana has been awarded $4.2 million by the U.S. Energy Department as part of the Energy Star rebate program, otherwise known as the Cash for Appliances program. Modeled after the Cash for Clunkers program that increased sales of fuel-efficient cars, and was heralded by the White House as a success, homeowners can get rebates for new […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Why is the MSM ignoring the New Orleans Saints?
That dastardly mainstream media blew it again. Did you know that the Saints won the Super Bowl on Sunday? If you’ve been relying on the five o’clock news or The Times-Picayune, you might have missed out. Lucky for you, neither The Lens nor I will ever let something as important as a Saints playoff victory […]